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In recent times, social media platforms have taken the market by storm. Not one or two, but there are several platforms where one can post their creative ideas like pictures and videos. Also one can follow various people there if one likes their content. Seeing that these platforms have millions and billions of users and out of the 70% of the users are regular ones, these spaces have turned into a great channel for marketing and advertising. However, it is not enough to just have great content one also will have to increase their fan following.

Who are fans and followers?

People who use a certain platform not only post their content, but also look for other people’s content with whom they can connect. So when these people start following their favorite accounts religiously, they become a follower and a fan.

Just like marketing happens in the real world, one will need more fans and potential customers to follow them on social media so that they can be converted into customers. That is why it is seen that fans play the most crucial role In making or breaking an account and their creator’s social media influence. These fans will only become loyal supporters, chain marketers, and customers for their followed people and business accounts.

Why followers and fans are so important?

Having a huge following on social media is important because:

Make the brand popular: one can use social media to promote their brand, whether it is any product, service or thought. Having a huge number of followers means they can reach out to their fans and establish their offering to them.
Create a community: many times it is not about just marketing or advertising, sometimes it is about reaching out to like-minded people. Social media can be a great platform for finding people like oneself and also it becomes easy to say what one wants and it will reach people easily.
Increase the influence: every brand or a social media influencer needs to spread their business and for that followers and fans are the best way to go about. Usually, these fans and followers only become marketers thus spreading the brand more effectively.
Why buy fans and followers?

Now that one has noticed how much followers and fans can affect one’s social media presence, whether it is an individual or a business. Therefore, other than some of the organic ways one can also buy followers for their account. Some of the benefits of buying social media fans are:

One can grow their business instantly without having to wait for a longer period of time.
Followers attract followers, so if one has a strong number of followers on their profile this will show the popularity and effectiveness of one’s products and thus will attract more followers.
Having more followers will influence people to visit one’s website, thus increasing the website traffic.
Having more followers means more visibility and that means more customers, all this will lead to higher revenue.
A large number of followers will also make one look more credible and thus will give a boost to one account among other competitors.

To start simply, a server is something which serves, it can be in the form of serving you via sending a message to your friend on WhatsApp or chatting with a colleague on Facebook, all this is done on a server. Servers are the backbone of internet and our lives. From making a banking transaction via some apps to playing a game, everything is done through servers. For example when you send a mail via Gmail you are working on the servers of Google which are making sure that your mail reaches to the recipient and also saves your mails and data for as long as you want. Now there are general servers like the servers of WhatsApp where multiple users are working and then there are dedicated servers which are used for specific purposes by a single user but using a dedicated servers has a cost and unlike WhatsApp it can’t be used freely.

Now you also have heard of servers getting down or servers not working properly, that may be because of more number of users using or working at a same time which creates a load on the server and which in turn reduces the speed of the servers and it takes more time to load. Like many a times it happens that a banking website gets hanged and you are unable to carry out your transaction, it is because of the either too many users using that server at that time or a poor quality server. To combat this issues bigger companies always make sure that they use servers with high and top end configuration so that the work of their users is not hampered. Like it seldom happens that the website of Google gets hanged even when unprecedented number of users use them, that’s because of servers used by Google are of top quality and of very good configuration which work smoothly even after rise in the number of users.

So, to understand it in short, servers are the reason you are able to send mails, order food online, chat on WhatsApp, surf on Facebook and everything which you are able to do on internet. In the end, I would just like to mention that servers are one of the most important inventions of the modern world and smooth functioning of servers is necessary for smooth functioning of our everyday activities and has become a need for mankind for survival.

Promoting and selling digital products requires getting your product in front of your audience. It’s a lot easier to make a sale when your ideal customer feels as if they just discovered the holy grail because you put it right in front of them so they could not miss it.

Your Website and Blog

Everything starts with your blog or website. It’s not a good idea to send people someplace else to make a purchase from you unless you’re making money from an affiliate sale.

Social Media Marketing

In addition to a blog, promote everything you offer on each of the social media platforms that your audience uses. Every post you make, every sale you have, every story you can relate to, and so forth should be shared on social media. Also, add sharing buttons to your email marketing messages and blog posts.

Content Marketing

Write blog posts, guest posts, and how-to articles. Make videos all about your product. What problems does your product solve? Create content about the problem so you can educate your audience about it, then offer them the solution too.

Paid Advertisements

Don’t ignore paid ads. They work. Do try to get everything else in place before running a paid advertisement. You need a good landing page, check-out process and so forth to make this worth it.

Influencer Marketing

Once you have your product ready, find some social media influencers to take up your cause. You can pay them, or you can find some who will work for a percentage of sales using an affiliate link. An influencer will simply talk about your product, maybe blog about it, and give their honest thoughts about it.

Affiliate Marketing

This is why your choice of shopping cart tech is so important. If you’re selling digital products, you need an affiliate program to make more money. Paying an affiliate half of the price of the product is a small price to pay to get more sales when the product is fully digital.

Creating More Landing Pages

Studies show that having more landing pages is better than having fewer. Create dedicated landing pages for every freebie you have, even your email list subscription, and potentially affiliate products too. This can look like a blog post or a page, but it should be fully dedicated to only one product per page.

Free Trials

Depending on the type of digital product you sell, free trials may work wonders. This is useful for apps, software, and plugins. You may want to offer an example of what your other products look like by creating some freebies that show what you do.

If you are the owner of a business, chances are that you already are aware of the importance of digital marketing for your business. Therefore, you may want to work with a good digital marketing agency, especially if you don’t have the time to run this type of campaign. In this article, we are going to take a look at some of the common benefits of working with a digital marketing agency. Read on to find out more.

1. Follow the Latest Trends

If you want to achieve success, you must always stay tuned to new tactics, strategies, search algorithm updates, and other things like this. Since you are not an expert in this field, we suggest that you hire the services of an expert. This is where the role of a digital marketing agency comes.

Besides, digital marketing covers several aspects, such as social media, paid ads, content, video, search Engine Optimisation, email marketing, and social media, just to name a few. There is a long list of strategies that you must consider. Therefore, it is important to hire a good service provider.

2. Reliability and Accountability

Good marketing agencies offer accountability and reliability. A reliable digital marketing agency will discuss all the matters with you in order to put together an updated strategy. These service providers are trustworthy and follow the best strategies.

As far as accountability is concerned, you are looking for a service provider who you can hold responsible for the campaigns they are going to run. For example, if you are not getting your desired results, you can get answers from the service provider.

3. Growing your In-House Marketing Team

If you already have your in-house marketing team, you can extend this team by hiring the services of a digital marketing agency. This is even more beneficial if you have a small business to run. This can help you save a lot of money as you don’t have to pay a monthly salary to the agency. You will just pay them temporarily for the services you are going to.

4. Focusing on other Business Matters

If you hire a digital agency for your marketing campaign, you can focus on other important matters of your business. Therefore, you will have plenty of time to manage your business if you hire a reliable, experienced, and accountable team of online marketers.

5. Using Advanced Tools

Digital marketers use a number of amazing tools for their work. With these tools, these professionals can get a deeper insight into your search engine rank, search visibility, and customers. But you cannot just invest in these tools as they will cost you a lot of money.

In this case, it makes sense to pay a digital SEO agency. This can help you save a lot of money as you won’t need to purchase expensive tools.

Marketing:
Marketing alludes to the actions of an organization related to purchasing and selling an item or administration. It incorporates publicizing, selling and conveying items to individuals. Individuals who work in organizations’ showcasing offices endeavor to get the consideration of target crowds utilizing mottos, packaging plans, superstar promotions and general media presentation.
There are four variables known as the advertising blend or the four Ps:
Product:
So as to figure out what you ought to offer, you should comprehend your objective, client’s needs and afterward tailor your item to address those issues.
Price:
The cost that you charge will impact the number of offers and the sum sold. On the off chance that you value it too low, it might create the impression that the item is of lower quality or you may basically make too little benefit. Whether you value it too high, clients may purchase fewer things or in little amounts.
Place:
Place alludes to both where you will offer your item and how you will disperse it.
Promotion:
For individuals to purchase your item, they should know about it, have a positive impression of it, and be persuaded that they need it.

Digital Marketing:
The advancement of items or brands by means of different types of electronic media. For instance, publicizing mediums that may be utilized as a component of the advanced showcasing system of a business could incorporate limited time endeavors made by means of the Internet, web-based life, cell phones and electronic boards, and by means of computerized and TV and radio channels.
Digital media is pervasive to the point that buyers approach data whenever and wherever they need it. Those days are gone when the information about your product or administrations are delivered by you and people got to know about only those pieces of information which you want them to hear. It is a progressively developing wellspring of news, purchasing or selling and communication. Also, they will probably trust them than you. There is the increase in demand for brands that are trusted by individuals, customized interaction and also personalized offers that are made according to their needs and interest.

The 5Ds characterize the open doors for buyers to interface with brands and for organizations to reach and gain from their gatherings of people in various ways:
Digital Gadgets:
Gatherings of people encounter marks as they cooperate with business sites and portable applications commonly through a mix of associated gadgets including cell phones, tablets, workstations, TVs and gaming gadgets.
Digital Platforms:
Most co-operations on these gadgets are through a program or applications from the signifying stages or administrations, that is Facebook (and Instagram), Google (and YouTube), Twitter and LinkedIn.
Digital media:
Distinctive paid, possessed and earned interchanges channels for coming to and connecting with gatherings of people, including promoting, email and informing, web indexes and interpersonal organizations.
Digital Information:
The knowledge organizations gather about their group of user profiles and their associations with organizations, which presently should be ensured by law in many nations.
Digital Innovation:
The showcasing innovation or technology stack that organizations use to make intelligent encounters from sites and portable applications to in-store stands and email battles.

Benefits of Digital Marketing:
Most Prominent Form of Marketing:
Digital marketing can possibly change the manner in which you reach and draw in your clients.
Cost-effective:
Digital Marketing gives you a chance to spare your money to a considerable degree. This can possibly replace expensive publicizing stations. You can help your leads with email promoting mechanization. Along these lines, it will enable you to pre-stack substance and schedule it for conveying the content at key circumstances.

Most Measurable Form of Marketing:
With conventional marketing, you need to sit tight for quite a long time, now and then even a very long time before the promotions begin to turn up. In this skirmish of conventional versus web-based advertising, web-based promoting wins again attributable to its fast outcomes. By estimating your digital marketing efforts continuously, you can see which strategies are working and which are definitely not. At that point, you can modify your advertisements for more prominent achievement. You can likewise take the bits of knowledge that you’ve picked up from the procedure to enhance future campaigns.
Target Ideal Buyers:
With digital marketing, you can guarantee that the correct customers are seeing your substance. Web optimization enables you to achieve those customers who are hunting the web for content and themes that are important to your business. While pay-per-snap, display, and internet-based life publicizing empowers you to focus on the individuals who are well on the way to be occupied with your items or administrations in light of statistic data and general qualities.
Benefit for Small Businesses:
This introduces an extraordinary open door for independent ventures to associate with potential clients and instruct them amid the starting phases of the purchaser’s excursion. By making pertinent and drawing in content that is upgraded for the web crawlers, you can enhance your visibility on the web and achieve clients when it is most important.
Attract Customers:
Digital marketing encourages you to achieve these connected users. In addition to the fact that you are ready to distribute and advance one of a kind content on these social locales, but on the other hand you’re ready to achieve purchasers through promoting. Web-based platforms like Facebook offer modern focusing on choices that assist you to achieve the customers who are well on the way to be occupied with your items or administrations.
Higher Engagement:
By improving your webpage content for the web indexes, you can work to achieve more purchasers on the web. Utilizing important keywords that assists portray your item or administration offerings can enable you to convey more focused traffic to your site, which expands transformations after some time.
Connect with Mobile Users:
Having a predominant online presence that is upgraded for cell phone and tablet clients can impact purchasing conduct. The vast majority of versatile searchers utilize their mobiles to keep an eye on forthcoming in-store buys, and about every one of them searches for the most applicable data to their inquiries. Some of the versatile clients have bought from an unexpected brand in comparison to the one they had as a main priority in view of the data recorded.
Analyze and Adapt Easily:
Since digital marketing gives genuine, convenient information, you can watch and adjust to the patterns and the activities that genuine individuals are taking. You don’t need to depend on, an example, informational index or make any informed speculations – design, execute and adjust in a hurry in view of genuine execution information.
Make Business More Competitive:
Digital marketing is the manner by which organizations are working now and will keep on working later on. On the off chance that your business isn’t as of now in the digital marketing division, at that point you’re behind. Guarantee your business is aggressive by utilizing a savvy digital marketing procedure.
Contribution towards Environment:
Traditional marketing utilizes a large number of papers for their promotions. For example, for hoardings, advertisement in newspapers, pamphlets only paper is utilized. And this had a negative impact on the environment. On the other hand, digital marketing promotes any product or services through social media or emails.
The sole advantage of diminishing paper utilization is sparing the world. The climatic changes we are seeing at this level will be decreased at a more noteworthy rate. The fundamental favorable advantage is picked up by nature.
Not just our condition can profit by the decrease of paper utilization, yet we can likewise pick up focal points, for example, sparing money. When you will utilize less paper then, you won’t need to purchase more papers. You will spare your cash in general. Firstly, your paper expenses will diminish, then your printing expenses will likewise diminish. You should comprehend that every one of these things is interrelated.
Paper utilization in numerous parts of the word is on the ascent. Extending generation and pulpwood gathering undermines a portion of the final regular timberlands and the general population and natural life that rely upon them. The increased use of digital marketing altogether adds to environmental change.
Dreamworth Solutions:
So, if you want to make your contribution towards the environment, choose digital marketing over traditional marketing. One of the best Digital marketing service provider in Pune is Dreamworth Solutions. They have a significant involvement in digital marketing taking care of nearby, local, national and global customers from various foundations. Be it any kind of business, they extremely surely know the necessities and prerequisites of each sort and work likewise to enable you to accomplish more noteworthy statures.

Our businesses also differ in terms of interface with clients. If you do “business to business” transactions, the number of people you interact with on a daily basis may differ from someone whose business relies on interacting with consumers. Appointments may be more practical in some instances than others. You have to tailor-make how you manage access to your particular situation if you are to eliminate distractions. Having said that it is important to note that some people do not mind spending the whole day at the office entertaining friends, visitors, and casual acquaintances dropping into the office whenever they feel like it. Do not be that kind of person. It sets the wrong kind of example to junior staff and can harm one’s productivity because these people take up time that you do not have and besides you want to cultivate a professional environment.

The demands of the day are enough to fill the eight working hours available unless if you tend to stay back and play catch up. How do you stay competitive in the market if there is no separation between work and play? Anybody serious about success and achieving effective results will put boundaries that are clear so that there is no confusion. Entrepreneurs are more susceptible to this especially when the workplace is easily accessible. The fact that you are your own boss even puts more responsibility on you to maintain self-discipline and self – management. I have written a whole book called, “Achieve More through Self – Leadership. In it I walk you through the practicalities of how you can get better results through managing self.

Appointments are an important way of not only managing time but managing life. They help you become more structured and productive. Some people seem not to be able to honour their appointments. I once attended a job interview that was supposed to start at 10:30am. By 11:30am there had been no communication about what was happening or when the supposed job interview was going to take place. I decided at the point that this company was probably not good enough for me to join because if you don’t respect people’s time you probably do not respect them.

You may be saying appointments are just not for me yet you never rock up at the doctor, dentist, lawyer or hairstylist without an appointment. Why is that the case? Because you simply won’t see the dentist without an appointment. They have given you conditions acceptable to them. We tell the world around us how to treat us by what we allow.

Some people are always available when you want to see them. If you are always free to see people at short notice, you are probably not that organized. The one who owns a diary will manage the one who doesn’t own one. Why? Because the one without the diary is always available, even though he is very likely to forget important meetings, dates and engagements because of a lack of organization. I used to have a boss who kept a diary and whatever you promised to do in the line of work, he would write down, including the day and time you said he would have it by. You would of-course forget because you didn’t record it like he did and when the time to deliver comes, guess who would be found wanting. It was then that I decided that I do not commit to an action that I am not willing to write down because, what’s written gets done!

You may be saying, “what if my business feeds off the “walk-ins? The fact that your business relies on walk – in customers should not be an excuse for disorder. Sometimes those who drop in unannounced may indeed be potential customers, suppliers, cold-calling salespeople, and even worthwhile business contacts. There is nothing wrong if the call is beneficial to you and your business but I believe there must be a structure and way of doing things that follows certain pre-set principles. I remember seeing a poster in an office that said “if you don’t have anything to do please don’t do it here”. It’s humorous yes, but true. Appointments help to structure your day and helps you allocate time to what’s important. This means you can focus on your most important asset: the paying customer. There is nothing as bad as walking into a place wanting to do business and staff are inattentive because there is just a demand on their time. I am more understanding if the personnel are not busy entertaining social visits at work.

In conclusion, you know your business situation better than any of us. All we can do is make recommendations that will enable efficiency that leads to growth. Some of you may actually need a personal assistant who will put order in your office and focus on the things you are not willing to do that will enable to focus on the highly value things you ought to do such as running a business.

Do you think successful people are just plain lucky?

Successful people did not become successful because they were lucky.

They did not achieve success by accident. Being at the right place at the right time, meeting relevant people, reading the appropriate book, did not come about accidentally or by luck.

Luck is brought about by Labour Under Correct Knowledge.

Successful people prepared themselves. Instead of giving up on anything they started and wanted to achieve they got stronger by learning more.

Success is a methodical, orderly and deliberate process of deciding what you want to do with your life, what are the steps that you need to undertake to get you there, and lastly what you will do once you get there.

One of the most important aspects, if not the most important aspect to success, is the ability to visualise your successful outcome and stay focused on it until you achieve it.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge, knowledge is limited.” – Albert Einstein

Successful people understood the potential power behind knowledge, yet they also understood that, for them to close the gap between where they are and where they wanted to be, they would have to piece together the enigma that is most often referred to as “life”.

They had to build a picture, a vision, of success in their mind, and then go about taking action on creating that envisioned life.

In much the same way, you have to be serious about your present and future, you need to have the knowledge that is required so you, too, may close the gap: you need to be and remain determined to devote yourself to taking massive action to build your business of succeeding in life.

You, too, will need to see the end, your dream and destiny that you desire in your mind’s eye. It is up to you to take the necessary and relevant action to make it all happen. It’s just like going to the doctor with a particular health problem.

The doctor may prescribe a medication for you to take four times a day, yet he cannot be there with you to ensure that you are taking the medication.

It comes back to deciding to be responsible for your life.

Have you noticed how it all stems from that one attitude? Being responsible for your own life.

Your success, your being responsible 100% for you to live your dream life starts here.

When you accept 100% responsibility for yourself and your current life situation, you will have the power to move towards those things you truly desire in life: which is success in all areas of your life.

This life-changing article is about possibilities and opportunities, knowledge and tools. It will help expose your unique course in life.

It will inspire, support and motivate you to excel, to do what successful people do, to have all that successful people have, and to become a shining example of a successful person.

Here, you’re not being told what you couldn’t do, instead you are being told to shoot for the stars. And above all, you are being shown how to shoot for those stars.

“A person is what he thinks about all day long.” – Emerson

Interesting thought, wouldn’t you think? So much so, it’s worth repeating: “A person is what he thinks about all day long.”

Success and happiness cannot happen if you possess the same old thoughts and beliefs.

If you do not change your mind, if you do not get rid of the unsupportive thoughts and beliefs, you will inevitably remain stuck in your old ways. Not much, if anything, will change.

Let’s give you a quick overview on how change comes about:

Your BEHAVIOUR, how you act (or perhaps do not act), controls your success or failure. Your ability to attain high levels of success is dependent upon your actions and behaviours. Your results are the outcome of your behaviour. Now let’s consider where your behaviours come from and what controls them?

Your FEELINGS command your behaviour. Every action that you take is first filtered through your feelings that reside in your subconscious mind. How you feel about something determines what you do and how well you do it. So where do your feelings come from?

Your ATTITUDES create and influence your feelings. Your attitude is your perspective from which you view life. Whatever attitude you have about anything will affect how you feel, which, in turn, affects how you act. Where do your attitudes come from?

Your BELIEFS create, control and influence your attitudes. What you believe about anything will determine your attitude about it, which will create your feelings, and then which will direct your behaviour and action. Belief patterns are so powerful that two people who are in the same situation could perceive things completely differently. It only requires us to believe what we see and how we see it. We all have thousands of beliefs – big and small. And where do your beliefs come from?

Your THOUGHTS create, control and influence your beliefs. Your thoughts are real and are immensely powerful. Everything you accept from the outside world and everything you feed yourself from within is a product of your thoughts. Everything starts as a thought.

So, it goes without saying you need to learn to control your thoughts. And when you do, you will automatically control your beliefs, your attitudes, your feelings and, consequently, your behaviour and actions.

The big secret to success:

Learn to control your thoughts and you will influence your behaviours and actions. It’s all a mind-set. That’s what we’ve been saying all along.

Success is predictable and is not achieved by accident.

Have the mind-set of the successful people and you will achieve success. Believe and it is yours!

“There is a great future in front of you, you can leave your past behind.” – Joel Osteen

Science of success experts have concluded that the brain is a goal-setting organism.

That is fantastic news for us: for whatever goal we give to our subconscious mind, it will work for us day and night, 24/7, to achieve it for us; to make it a reality.

The principal breakthrough that scientists made was that we do not need to waste our precious time and effort trying to change old thoughts and behaviours: we just simply create new ones.

And the other discovery they made was that we can continue to create new thoughts, new memories, new behaviours, new skills, and learn new things for as long as we are alive on this earth.

Now, with the new discoveries in recent years, it has been scientifically proven that our capacity to achieve and succeed literally has no limits.

Our brain has the capacity to continually learn during our entire lifetime.

Our brain can form new thoughts, can have new memories, and can learn new things by the millions, no matter what your age is. By the millions.

That’s how many new things we can learn, that’s how many new skills we can learn, that’s how many new thoughts we can have, that’s how many new behaviours we can adopt.

This is encouraging because there is no limit on your capacity to achieve new things.

No limits whatsoever for the human brain to learn, memorise, develop, achieve and perform at higher levels than ever imagined. It makes no difference what your age is: you are capable of learning anything new that you want to learn.

That adds to what we spoke of earlier: no more excuses.

“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.” – Malcolm X

Your brain has the capacity to achieve way beyond what was ever thought possible. So now is the time to break out of your limited thinking and start dreaming big and imagining unlimited possibilities.

Becoming successful is not impossible.

It is a choice you make through a decision. Every day, step-by-step, you may climb the mountain of success if you’ve decided to do so, if you’re committed to accomplish what the others think impossible.

Design your future now.

Prepare to receive what you desire.

Thanks to the phenomenal advances made in cognitive science and the development of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), personal change, personal transformation, has come a very long way.

In fact, personal growth is no longer a mystery.

NLP has brought to light that change, transformation and growth can be fast, reliable, and even fun. It has shown us that we do not need to spend thousands of hours slaving away to increase our creative-thinking abilities.

By practicing a few simple exercises and applications, you can start your creative juices flowing, and you may even amaze yourself at the quality and quantity of good ideas that you can come up with to expedite your success.

It can allow you to achieve something you seek within days and months as opposed to years and decades. That’s the power of the progress science has made on how the brain works, and also how you can have your mind to be your best ally in achieving anything you want.

Learn to live as you like by no longer living as you dislike.

Are you ready to get on the road to success and fulfilment?

Bear in mind, much like everything else in life, success requires practice and massive, consistent action.

“Success doesn’t mean the absence of failures; it means the attainment of ultimate objectives. It means winning the war, not every battle.” – Edwin C Bliss

Do you feel as if you’ve outgrown your circle of friends? Perhaps you do not feel safe or understood any longer. There may be fewer and fewer things you can share with people in your habitual circle, and it leaves you feeling lonely or isolated. If so, you are not alone. Welcome to one of the core dynamics of continuous growth!

As we continue to evolve, many of us struggle with a sense of not quite fitting in with our traditional community or tribe: we may have expanded or changed beyond the borders of tribal norms, and no longer find the same sense of belonging there. Other members may have tightened the tribal rules to foster a sense of security. As a result, we may feel a sense of disconnection or alienation.

In truth, each one of us belongs to many tribes simultaneously: there is your original tribe – the family you were born into – and then there are all the communities of choice you have joined: your work tribe, your social circles, your faith-based community, your neighborhood, and more. These communities are not static; they are in continuous flux because they consist of individuals who are in continuous states of change. When there is a lot of change happening in either the individual or the community, a sense of dissonance results.

How are we to deal with this? First, it is important to recognize that tribal allegiances were historically forged for survival. They were adapted over the course of centuries to ensure the safety and survival of the group. Survival required that individuation be sacrificed for the trade-off of security.

In modern society, the tables are flipped. Whether we enjoy it or not, change is essential for survival at every level of being. The pace of change is driven by technological advances and happens with increasing rapidity: sociologists estimate that more change has taken place in society over the course of the past 100 years, than in the totality of the previous 6,000 years. Individual adaptation now is a requirement for survival, and the pace of individual change does not always match the pace at which our various tribal communities evolve. The resulting dissonance can cause intense friction and pain.

Dissonance also results from confusion between the concepts of ‘connection’ and ‘community.’ We tend to equate one with the other, when they really relate to different qualities. Connection relates to connectivity: the objective physical technology or media that enables us to build community, but which does not represent the quality of that community. Connectivity simply offers the opportunity to connect with others through internet, texting, phone calls, or any other social networking options.

Community is the result of building relationship through meaningful interaction over time. There is no shortcut; it is a process that develops when bonds of trust and intimacy are nurtured and honored.

And here lies a caveat: When we confuse connectivity with community, we depersonalize the sacred nature of true community and start relating to people as objects. Instead of developing intimacy over time, we collect friends on social network sites or try to buy people’s allegiance. Yet friending is simply an act of connecting; it does not create intimacy.

In fact, social experiments indicate that technologically dominated connectivity results in alienation and social collapse over time. In a groundbreaking social experiment conducted by Josh Harris, one of the founders of social networking on the internet, he found that the more people’s private lives were exposed by 24/7 technology, the more their sense of intimacy and relationship deteriorated until the community collapsed in violence and self-destructive behavior.

It is time to revisit our concepts of community so we can create tribes that offer a true sense of intimacy and belonging.

In his 1987 book, The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace, psychologist M. Scott Peck described several core characteristics of true community. Beyond the obvious components of inclusivity, commitment and participatory consensus, Peck pointed out the quality of embracing diversity through realism. When each member contributes their unique viewpoint from a place of humility and goodwill, the community benefits from a broader perspective in which to better grasp the full context of a situation. In other words, mutual tolerance helps members to embrace one another’s different viewpoints as an integral part of the whole, instead of imposing a forced compliance to groupthink or cohesion.

In an environment like this, members experience and express compassion and respect for one another. They allow others to share their vulnerability, to learn and grow, and to express who they truly are. When conflict arises, they learn to resolve it with wisdom and grace. Members listen to and respect each others’ gifts, accept each others’ limitations, celebrate their differences, and commit to find solutions together rather than to fight against each other. Indeed, the true spirit of community is the spirit of peace, love, wisdom and power. The source of this spirit may be seen as an outgrowth of the collective self or as the manifestation of a Higher Will.

Does this description of community sound spiritual to you? It is indeed, because Spirit is the common denominator among all of us, regardless of how separate we feel from others.

As human beings, we often experience a socio-economic sense of separation from others because of different opinions, beliefs, expectations, language, culture, or interests, since each one of us expresses these in a way uniquely different from anyone else. And still, we continue to differentiate! In this ongoing process, we continue to evolve or devolve in response to life. A community that felt like a good fit last year may no longer work today; the places where we felt embraced, now may suffocate us. Over the course of a lifetime, we can expect to outgrow and change allegiances to many of the tribal communities we once belonged to.

And yet, when we transcend the layers of physical appearance, mental beliefs and socio-economic conditioning, we find in the presence of Spirit a common denominator in everyone around us. Perhaps it is time to expand our tribal definitions to embrace a spiritual community that includes all of mankind as children of God.

Mother Teresa admonished her nuns to see Jesus in every leper they encountered, to find His presence as they looked into the eyes of the homeless. When we can look past the issues that divide us to find omnipresent Divinity in each other, we will uncover the foundations of true community.

Spiritual community transcends all socio-economic borders, beliefs and backgrounds. It is inclusive because it operates on voluntary self-responsibility and mutual compassion, and its doors are open to everyone.

Building this type of community takes time: time to listen, to hear, to respond and to participate. Take a few moments to read the description of spiritual community again. Then, make time in your life to foster that type of connection with people who matter to you. You are one of the architects of community in your life, and you can participate in building a tribe where you belong.

What would happen to you if your home life was more organized than it is right now? Can work-life balance be achieved? What are the tools at our disposal? Could scheduling appointments and keeping them at home help us save time and prioritize?

What is the challenge we face? I sometimes find that time spent at home can be the busiest time, especially in the times we live in. Imagine someone working from home, home-schooling children, and sometimes even doing a side hustle. Imagine also the full-time home-based entrepreneur. How do they manage to do all they need to do in a day?. We are living in a time when many entrepreneurs and even company employees have adopted work- at – home culture. This comes with its challenges as the lines become blurred between home and work. These blurred lines and constraints on the limited resource called time result in over-worked, under-rested, burnt-out individuals. Whilst good time management has been encouraged and indeed, embraced in the workplace, I believe more needs to be done in changing the mindset for the elusive work-life balance to be achieved.

What are the tools at our disposal? To manage time effectively at home, there are many interventions one can employ including setting goals for the day, prioritizing wisely, setting a time limit for every task, organizing oneself, and instituting the discipline of appointments. Yes, an appointment at home! We can spend time pontificating on the pros and cons of each intervention, however, I believe we need to focus on appointments and see how this can powerfully change the course of one’s day regardless of whether it’s a workday or weekend. Life is busy as it is without any intrusions. The question is how do you handle the one who announces that they are at the gate. These can be friends, neighbors, a salesman of some product you do not even need. I am not promoting regimentation here but rather a culture of filling your day with what’s important. Everything that we succeed at is because we carefully plan and execute it. I am a firm believer that you cannot manage time if you do not manage yourself thus I implore you to incorporate planning and appointments into your repertoire. I am not talking about something I do not do. I have to achieve many things in a day therefore I set appointments with my work, others, and myself.

Could scheduling appointments and keeping them on the home front help us save time and prioritize? Whereas we have established that it is a normal business practice to set appointments and keep them, we need to abandon the liberal open-door policy of allowing all and sundry to have access to us as and when they please on the home front. Please understand where I am coming from. We each have greatness within us but for us to achieve it we need to culture great habits. Employing the use of appointments at home and seeing only those people you had agreed to see removes non-essential encounters especially during the most productive hours. I know this will vary with culture, geographical region, or even level of affluence, whether you live in a low density or high-density residential area, but doesn’t negate the need to be organized and effective. Controlling access determines how organized you are and how well you will work and rest when the time for scheduled rest comes.

What do we need to do differently? We need to be disciplined and diligent, learn to say no, now is not a good time, let’s make an appointment for next week. What are the benefits of this approach? You are not always fire-fighting to meet deadlines, You are not always tired because you have not taken time out to rest. You have set aside enough time to spend with your loved ones or a loved one. If you are a busy person, I am sure you appreciate what I am saying. Whether it’s time to work uninterrupted, family time, or “me-time”, it takes some kind of order to enjoy it.

I am not saying that those that come unannounced are bad people. No, not at all, they probably are people you enjoy spending time with. Nevertheless, there must be prior communication so that you can attend to your visitor(s) when it is convenient for both you and them. It can be quite disrupting and a whole day can just pass by without achieving anything that you had planned to do.

As we grow older we begin to appreciate that rest and recovery need to be scheduled. The fact that I am relaxing doesn’t mean that I don’t have anything to do. One therefore cannot assume that just because you are at home you are available. Maybe you have scheduled that time to rest. That is important. You need to make an appointment with yourself, spouses need to also set aside time for each other. Parents need to schedule a time to spend with their children. When you have some sort of order in your life you determine who sees you and who you see. It also means that your relationships will be healthy and that makes you a happier person.

In conclusion, I believe that the work-life balance can be achieved. There are many tools at our disposal just like it is in the workplace.I believe we could do more and be happier if we are disciplined enough to make only the commitments we can keep.I am certain that setting appointments and keeping them at home help us save time and prioritize.